Cameron Leggett

Cameron Leggett

Performance Art, Experimental Sound, Book Design & Layout

Leggett is a California artist whose performances have been solely in the City of Ventura for the last 20 years. He started experimenting with audio and accoustic instruments in the mid-eighties using discarded reel to reel tape recorders and thrift store acquired consumer grade Casio keyboards (the Casio SK-1 Sampling Keyboard remains a favorite still.) Leggett has built a few experimental electronic and accoustic instruments, taking cues from pioneers such as John Cage, Qubais Reed Ghazala, Harry Partch, and Delia Derbyshire. This improvisational process unfolded using answering machine cassette tape loops and boombox outputs, run through guitar effect pedals. Anything to make an alien sound. This experimentation eventually led to a desire for more professional equipment and methods, as well as a desire to make alterations to the devices that were acquired second hand (Speak & Spells speech synthesizers are a favorite.) Familiarity and contempt for the linear time-line based digital editing paradigm had always led him to return to the basic technique of recording experiments in real time... and performances in real time. Being a professional tech support person must have somehow influenced a desire to maintain a separation between artistic creation and computers... but computers always have a way of getting involved.

Early performances were featured at Art City (1994) and Daily Grind Coffee House(1996) using a cheap altered hollow body guitar, various pedals, video computer systems, sythesizers, and amplifiers. Audiences were encouraged to create audio source material in real time by playing games on the 5 provided gaming consoles. This was performed under the monikers Nueral Haggard and Aural-B. Then from years 2000 - Primal Circus provided the premier debut of Opal Gann, consisting of Leggett and Keith Trego with a friendship ongoing since the mid-eighties pre-dating any pretensions toward artistic acclaim. Opal Gann exists as an experimental and collaborative effort between like minded individuals and only exists as a collaboration between Keith Trego and Cameron Leggett. Then between 2000 - 2017 - Opal Gann has appeared at Test Garden, Trippers Hollow, Avant Garden Equinox Parties, and various gallery openings. Usually arranged by the person fondly known as Dept.

2017 - Art City Gallery Pre-Opening History Exhibition, First digital projection performance with Opal Gann, utilizing historic digital photos from Art Citizens as source material in Pure Data to create algorithmically generated and manipulated imagery, as inspiration for the live electronic tonalities generated by Keith Trego and Leggett. The projections continued as the Art Citizens took inspiration and Opal Gann left the stage to dance and tremble feverishly.